The Pittsburgh Press (February 14, 1946)
Editorial: Exit Ickes – but not goodbye
The Ick reverted to the scriptures and the major prophets when he went out as Secretary of the Interior after 13 long years. He didn’t exactly depart as did Elijah in a chariot of fire but it was almost that spectacular. Anyway, he paraphrased Elijah when he referred to a cloud no bigger than a man’s hand, as now appearing on the Democratic horizon.
The Good Book recounts that what followed Elijah’s ominous warning was, first, a great rain; then a wind so strong it rent, the mountains and broke the rocks; then an earthquake and after that a fire.
Whether the Ickensian forecast will materialize and Biblical history repeat, remains to be seen. But certain it is that the manner of Mr. Ickes’ separation from the federal payroll was no mean show.
So there goes, au revoir but not goodbye, one of the most interesting and unpredictable characters of our times.
Eight and a half pages of small type are required in the Congressional Directory to list the duties and high-ranking subordinates over which Mr. Ickes has presided. Under him have been all National Parks, Indian affairs, all territories and island possessions, fish and wild life, reclamation, the Bureau of Mines, the General Land Office, the Geological Survey, and the grazing service – just to mention part of his peacetime cruising radius. In addition were 39 special war agencies.
Yet, in peace and war, he has always found time to mind everybody else’s business in which he became interested. And in addition, to engage in the great game of political phrase-making. That brought forth such contributions as “Willkie, the barefoot boy from Wall Street,” and of Dewey’s “throwing his diaper into the ring.”
Now on Mr. Ickes’ departure, he warns of the political gnats. He has been the political gadfly.
But, withal, his has been about the only Interior Department operation of our recollection in which there has been no major scandal, no charge of graft, no Fall or Ballinger stuff. And while he has been frequently loose and loud-mouthed and not always either accurate or funny in his extra-curricular activities, he has been, we think, an exceptionally able Secretary of the Interior, Oil and Solid Fuels Administrator, and, in all directions, a great aid to the winning of the war.
We remember vividly June 1941, when the big shots of the oil industry were holding a convention. While it was on, Mr. Ickes was appointed Oil Coordinator for War. The gloom that prevailed among the oil men on that announcement was of the suicidal sort.
Yet, after the war, those very same oil men who had worked with Mr. Ickes through all the war years gave a great banquet in his honor, with everything from cocktails to flowers, from soup to nuts, including bronze medallions by a famous sculptor of the curmudgeon, for all guests assembled.
So that’s why we refer to him as Ickes the Unpredictable; and why we aren’t getting into the Elijah business as to where he may go from here.
He may prove to be no bigger than a man’s hand, but then again he may turn out to be the real and super-reincarnation of the original Bull Moose.
We’ll wait and watch for the possible rains and earthquakes and great fires – and great winds. Only as to the latter do we feel somewhat sure.